Happy Thanksgiving?
Around here, it's becoming increasingly tough for sports fans to fight off the twin scourges of cynicism and despair and accentuate the positive.
Everywhere the losses spiral out of control like the national debt and the gallows humor gets a vigorous workout.
The 101-loss Mariners. The 2-9 Seahawks. The 2-21 Apple Cup participants.
Even the Sonics stumbled through a franchise-worst season before having the decency to skulk out of town and hide out in Oklahoma City.
Where's the thanks, you say?
If you enjoy your morning cup of schadenfreude, if the other guy's pain makes yours seem a trifle more bearable, well ...
News is trickling in from the heartland, and it's not pretty.
No, things aren't going so great for the team formerly known as Seattle SuperSonics, who now go by the alias "Oklahoma City Thunder."
It seems nothing's gone right since the team unveiled its uniforms, which you might be surprised to find out are richly layered with symbolism and strength.
Through it all, through the boos and the non-sellouts and the P.J. firing, the basketball literati at the Oklahoman have worked overtime to give the OKC fans happy news.
Columnist Berry Tramel went so far as to bequeath the team a nickname for its given nickname, overdubbing the Thunder as the Boomers
But all that effort has gone unrewarded thus far.
The Boomers fell to 1-15 on Wednesday with a disastrous loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland, trailing by a season-worst 42 points before losing by 35.
And LeBron James played only 17 minutes.

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After guiding the team to a franchise-worst 20-62 record and starting this season at a dismal 1-12, Sam Presti finally relieved head coach P.J. Carlesimo of his duties Friday evening.

It appears the final straw was an embarrassing loss to New Orleans Friday night at home.

Assistant coach Scott Brooks will assume the head coaching duties in an interim role. Read about Carlesimo's firing here and here.

This is an interesting read by Nick Friedell of Yahoo Sports blog The Shutdown Corner.

Friedell talks about the dip in NBA attendance around the league, particularly in places like Philadelphia, Orlando and Memphis.

The Grizzlies currently have the lowest attendance in the league at 11,924 a night in a place that seats 19,000. Friedell hints that a few NBA franchise could be in danger with the current financial crisis going on right now.

With the league struggling in some markets, it makes you wonder how much folks here are committed to bringing an NBA team back, particularly state lawmakers who would have to support putting forth money to rebuild KeyArena.

Each week will take a look at the Portland Trail Blazers weekly schedule, including a look back at the preceding week and some quick analysis at how the team is playing.

In this debut we take a peek at the team’s best player, Brandon Roy, and why the team’s success hinges on how Roy plays each game.

Roy in a lot of ways is a coaches’ dream – a competitive, pass-first, team player with the ability to score from anywhere on the floor. But sometimes Roy’s humble nature hurts instead of helps his team.

=> Read more!